Weekly Information - Friday 12th April 2024

Hot Chocolate with the Head

Friday 12^th April 2024

After a wonderful Easter break, it’s been great to catch up with our pupils this week and see Mrs Cochrane’s office full of smiling faces as they enjoyed a hot chocolate and celebrated their achievements.

Eve (Y12), Lily (Y13) and Arunya (Y13) were nominated for their contribution to the Sixth Form show. Arunya not only showcased her talents at the Sixth Form show but was the opening act, which takes such courage to be the first one. Arunya chose to perform a traditional dance from her culture which was a real treat for the audience to watch, it’s safe to say she’d set the bar high right from the very beginning. It was a remarkable performance to open the show with and Arunya should be really proud of herself.  

Eve shared with the group that she had chosen to play the guitar at the show, which was completely self-taught and a skill she learnt during lockdown. In fact, it was the first performance Eve had done since learning the guitar in front of an audience. Eve said that ‘performing in the Sixth Form show was a great experience. Everyone was so supportive and encouraging. There was no judgement which made it a fun and relaxed environment. I moved schools to be part of the JTHS Sixth Form and so pleased I did.' Whilst Eve played the guitar, Lily performed a duet with Eve which many described as a spectacular performance. Well done to you both – you have shown real tenacity and dedication. You can find out more about our Sixth Form show here: John Taylor High School eNewsletter (jths.co.uk)

It was also a delight to see more of our pupils being recognised for their literacy skills. William (Y7) and Amellia (Y7) have become our 23^rd and 24^th Accelerated Reader Word Millionaire of the year which is a fantastic achievement for them. William shared with the group that he is currently reading ‘Point Blank’ which he highly recommends to those who love adventure, mystery and action. Ameilia said that she has just finished the entire Harry Potter book series and whilst she did love the films, there’s nothing better than reading the books! Well done to both William and Amelia, it was lovely to learn about your passion for reading.

Next we heard from Rebekah (Y7) who has become our 5^th double Accelerated Reader Word Millionaire of the year which is a phenomenal achievement. Rebekah has just finished The Deathless Girl by Kiran Millward Hargrave and found it interesting as its not usually a genre she would choose. Rebekah is a keen reader and loves exploring new storylines and plots. Well done Rebekah, it was a pleasure to spend break time with you!

Thank you to everyone who made a nomination this week. It’s a great way to find out what our students have achieved in and out of classroom and give them the recognition they deserve. To nominate a student, please email [email protected]

The following students celebrated their achievements with Mrs Cochrane this week, congratulations to them all! 

Asma Chaudhry Medical Student Talk

On Thursday 11^th April, our pupils had the fantastic opportunity to hear from Asma Chaudhry, former JTHS student, who gave an insight into her path to becoming a first year Medical student at Anglia Ruskin University and the challenges she faced along the way.

After a short introduction, Asma made it no secret that to become a medical student there was a lot of hard-work that went on behind the scenes. She shared with the group how she had faced numerous rejections and took resits in order to get onto her course. She also talked about how she’d spent hours researching courses, comparing university grade requirements and exploring topics to ensure the course she selected was relevant to not only to her academic achievements, but also her passions. Asma said ‘the university tutors don’t expect you to be a ready-made doctor, they look for the potential you have as an individual to develop your skills’. It was great to hear how Asma also takes a keen interest in hot topics and current affairs within the NHS and is able to relate her studies to ‘real-life’ issues.

Whilst Asma’s route to University wasn’t as straight forward as she had originally hoped, Asma wanted to reassure the group that there were alternative routes to becoming a medical student. These include apprenticeships, transfer schemes and post-grad courses. Asma decided that taking a gap year after her A-levels was the best thing for her. It gave her the opportunity to gain life experience, volunteer, perfect her personal statement and resit one of her exams. Asma really wanted to re-iterate the importance of developing transferrable skills which she gained during her gap year. These included resilience, teamwork, leadership, dignity and commitment during her time volunteering in retail and at Derby Hospital. She said ‘not only do these skills align with the NHS Core Values, but they will set you apart from other students who are also applying. Medicine is such a competitive area, so anything you can do to make yourself stand out is absolutely worthwhile. I really appreciated the time I had on my gap year as it helped me to reset and refocus.’

Asma finished her talk by telling the group to take advantage of the school’s support with personal statement writing and the chance to be involved in the mock interview process. Mrs Ball, Subject Leader CEIAG said ‘It was a real delight to listen to Asma’s journey from when she left JTHS to where she is now. Her perseverance and determination is something that the students and myself were really impressed by and we can’t thank her enough for giving her time and advice to our students today.’

If any students have any questions about the talk today, please email [email protected] or visit our dedicated careers webpage Students - John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk).

During the Easter break Mr Hulley, Miss O’Brien, Miss Senior, Miss Archer and Mr Simmons took to the slopes in Alpendorf with 43 pupils from Year 9 & 10 for an action-packed week of fun and adventure.

Every day started with a 6am wake-up call ready for the group to be on the coach for 7.15am. Despite the early mornings there was a lot of excitement and anticipation as the coach drove through stunning scenery towards the ski resort.

On the slopes the group learnt new skills such as sliding, stopping, turning, controlling speed, balance and spatial awareness. It was a pleasure to for our team of teachers to watch the pupil’s determination, persistence and confidence grow throughout the week. Their smiles said it all!

Mr Hulley said ‘it was a delight to see every single student challenging themselves when skiing, there wasn’t a time when we had no-one skiing despite a range of abilities. Some of the pupils displayed some fantastic skills on the slopes whilst others finished with big wipe outs. It was great to see them pick themselves up and keep going; it’s all part of the experience. The support and encouragement from their peers was incredible and it made me very proud to be part of the JTHS community. At times organising such a big trip is challenging, however all of that is forgotten once I saw the memories and friendships that the pupils were creating. Thank you to all the students for representing the school so wonderfully and to the staff who helped tirelessly to bring the trip to life.’

As well as the ski sessions, which took place everyday from 9am-12pm and 1pm to 3pm, the pupils got lots of opportunities to socialise with friends. They visited an ice-cream parlour, pool/billiards hall and ate lots of delicious food at the pizzeria. A definite highlight for some of the students. On the last evening the staff and students took part in a presentation evening which was a wonderful way to finish off the holiday and reflect on the memories and achievements from the week.

Thank you to everyone who made this trip such a success and to all the pupils who demonstrated the JTHS core values during their time away from the classroom. We are very proud of you all.

After the success of our Community Afternoon Tea, led by Mrs Berry before Easter, it has been wonderful to recieve cards and letters of appreciation to our staff and of course the fantastic pupils who volunteered on the day. Will and Ava have been sent a direct letter and there is a card which reads 'To the staff and children at JTHS. Thank you for a lovely afternoon tea, the attention of all the children was exceptional, so was the staff. From Brenda & Rita'. 

If you didnt get chance to read the full article about the Community Afternoon tea, you can read it here: John Taylor High School eNewsletter (jths.co.uk)

Wellbeing Award update

Parents, we need your help! We are in the final stretch of gaining accreditation for the wellbeing award at JTHS. We have had lots of activities happening at JTHS to help raise awareness of mental health and the importance of wellbeing, from tea and talks, assemblies, guest speaker, exam stress busting workshops and confidence boosting boxing sessions for both staff and students.

Student Support and the SEN department have been working closely with students to help support positive wellbeing and Mrs Appleton and Mrs Heathcote and the pastoral teams have continued their hard work in supporting students from KS3 to KS5. If you would like advice or guidance on children’s or parental Wellbeing there are links on the school website to external support agencies and articles of support.

As part of the Wellbeing Award for Schools parental feedback is important. Like the previous survey’s the final parental survey allows you to share your thoughts on how JTHS has supported wellbeing. Please can you complete the survey to help us inform our final decisions on what we have done well and areas that we will continue to endeavour to improve on at JTHS. The deadline for completion is Friday 19^th April.

https://app.awardplace.co.uk/stakeholder-evaluations/user-survey/65fd594a6137f

Thank you.

Thank you to Year 9 parents/carers for taking the time to support us in providing your feedback. 

Read the full report here: Parent View Feedback - John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk) 

Here are some of our highlights

Congratulations to the following students from Year 8 & 9 who were part of the Burton Rugby team that won the U14 Girls Staffordshire county cup on Sunday against Lichfield Rugby Club. 

Year 8 - Mattie, Hattie, Rosie, Alys, Lauren

Year 9 - Laura

Well done to you all! 

Information for Parents

We continue to develop our support for parents with Safeguarding information with regular updates to the school website and regular communications via SchoolZine. 

To access the Safeguarding page on the website please use the link below:

Safeguarding - John Taylor High School (jths.co.uk)

Here you will find information relating to Bereavement, Domestic Abuse, Family Support, Filtering and Monitoring, Mental Health, Online Safety, Operation Encompass (Staffordshire Police), Prevent, Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment, Young Carers and a link to our policies and procedures.

Designated Safeguarding Lead

We would also like to advise parents and students that from Monday 8th April, the Designated Safeguarding Lead at John Taylor High School is Mrs M Bousfield. To contact Mrs Bousfield, please contact main school reception. 

Designated Safeguarding Deputies

Mrs K Harrison- Safeguarding Officer

Mrs S Appleton- Senior Family Support Worker

Mrs S Hickey- Attendance Intervention Manager

Mrs L Heathcote- Sixth Form Pastoral Support

Mr J Twynham- Deputy Headteacher

Ms C Crutchley- Assistant Headteacher

Mrs A Spencer- Assistant Headteacher

Mrs Harrison and Mrs Appleton can be contacted by calling the main school number and selecting the option for Safeguarding. All other members of the team can be contacted through main school reception. 

Please be reminded about the information below which was shared before the Easter holidays. This is linked to leave of absence requests and clarifies the John Taylor MAT procedures for this.

Firstly, in order to be considered, all leave of absence requests must be submitted at least 2 weeks in advance. Secondly, fixed penalty notices will be issued for unauthorised leaves of absence of 1 day or more.

At John Taylor MAT, all schools are required to follow a common Pupil Attendance and Punctuality Policy in order to ensure fairness and consistency. With regards to legal intervention, all schools are expected to follow current local authority ‘Penalty Notice Codes of Conduct’ and thresholds for issuing penalty notice fines. For term time holidays, the Staffordshire County Council threshold for these fines is from 1 day or more. The full policy can be found in the policies and procedures section of the school website.

A new ‘national framework for penalty notices’ will be introduced from 19^th August 2024 as detailed in the recent update to the DfE’s ‘Working together to improve attendance’ guidance. This has been reported in the media but will not become active until next academic year, 2024-25.

Derbyshire Police - Recruitment Event - Ripley HQ on the 11^th May 2024.

The careers event aims to show potential candidates the variety of roles we offer from Constable, Detective, Volunteer & Staff. We hope to have over 20 departments attend, as well as the recruitment team to answer any questions regarding the application process. 

This would be a great event for students to increase their knowledge on career prospects, speak to serving staff & officers and see where their career could take them. 

To attend, candidates must register via this link: External Events - Shared HR Service Centre (tal.net). If candidates do not register, they cannot attend. 

We have three time slots to choose from, 10am to 11am, 11:15am – 12:15pm & 12:30pm – 13:30pm.

Registration of interest for our Year 12 Engineering Taster Day is now open.

Please note that students must register themselves individually; you cannot register as a school or for students. Please also note that places are limited and will be given out on a first come, first served basis.

The event will take place on Wednesday 26^th June from 09:45-15:45 with arrivals and registration from 09:15 onwards. The deadline for students to register their interest is by Friday 19th April. They will be notified via email by Friday 26th April if they have got a place or not. If they are offered a place, I will need a signed form from them and you letting me know that it is okay for them to be out of school/college for the day to attend the event. You do not need to accompany them on the day but can if you wish to. If so, please fill out the form for yourself.

Registration of interest for our Year 12 Maths Taster Day will be opening on Monday 29^th April, so please do keep an eye on our webpage. The process will be the same as the Year 12 Engineering Taster Day. 

Dear Parent/Carer,

I am delighted to inform you that John Taylor High School has signed up for a new initiative to support families and schools called Six4Schools introduced by the Birmingham Bears.

What is Six4Schools?

Six4Schools is an initiative by Birmingham Bears which offers adult tickets starting at £13 (normally £25) for their T20 matches this summer when using a discount code unique to the school. U5s are always free and 5-15 year olds £5.

Our school will benefit because for every adult ticket sold, the school will receive £6 back. As an example, if we sell 200 adult tickets, we will receive £1200! This is meant to be used to reinvest in the education of the pupils (for e.g., for: computer equipment, playground equipment, or cricket coaching sessions).

It’s a great opportunity for the school and hopefully a chance for you to enjoy the incredible T20 atmosphere at Edgbaston this summer.

To purchase your tickets, follow the instructions below:

1. visit: Tickets.Edgbaston.com

2. At the top of the page enter this promotional code: JTHS24

3. Select the Birmingham Bears fixture you would like to attend this summer (please note the discount only applies to Saturday 8 June and Sunday 14 July fixtures). If you did not enter the promotional code before this can also be done here on the right-hand side of the page.

4. Select the stand in which you would like to purchase your tickets. U16s must be accompanied by an adult and for every 1 adult ticket sold, 5 U16 tickets may be selected.

5. Make your payment using your credit/debit card

You will receive your tickets via email.

It would be fantastic to see as many parents as possible take advantage of this offer to head to Edgbaston this summer to watch some exciting cricket and in the process help us win the interactive board!

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Dean

Sextortion - A Guide for Parents

With incidents of sextortion significantly on the increase around the world it's important that both professionals and parents know the signs and how to help and support their children. Although anybody can be targeted, the surge appears to be boys aged 14+ and the motivation is usually financial. In the past offenders would often threaten to share the victims intimate images with friends and family but that very rarely happened, however we are now starting to see this happen more frequently, including threats of physical violence and more.

Internet Matters have a really useful web page with lots of advice and support for parents and their children.

You can find the web page HERE.